Skip to main content

harry potter - Why didn't Voldemort go after Professor Trelawney?


Throughout Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort was obsessed with hearing the prophecy, but after the battle at the Ministry he still hadn’t heard it.


Via Snape, he knew that it was Professor Trelawney who originally made the prophecy.


Until Half-Blood Prince, it’s understandable why Voldemort couldn’t get to her: she was in Hogwarts with Dumbledore, and he probably protected her as much as he did Harry. We also learn from Dumbledore that she would be in danger if she left Hogwarts:



“Divination is turning out to be much more trouble than I could have foreseen, never having studied the subject myself. I cannot ask Firenze to return to the forest, where he is now an outcast, nor can I ask Sybill Trelawney to leave. Between ourselves, she has no idea of the danger she would be in outside the castle. She does not know – and I think it would be unwise to enlighten her — that she made the prophecy about you and Voldemort, you see.”



But during Deathly Hallows, when Voldemort controls the school (and most of the country), why didn’t he try to contact Trelawney, and to make her tell him what the prophecy was? She casually joins the fight during the last battle, so I think she was still teaching there and hadn’t gone into hiding.


In the beginning of Deathly Hallows, we see that Voldemort has kidnapped the Muggle-Studies Professor, before he’d even installed Snape or the Carrows. Why didn’t he try to reach Trelawney?



Answer




The only Fridge Logic reason I could come up with is that there is no magic that can be used on Trelawney to make her remember any prophesy she has made. She is just a medium for the prophesy and cannot remember any part of it, nor of even having made one.


This raises the question then of "how does the department of ministry preserve prophesies?" To which Fridge Logic leads us to the ministry using magic on the witnesses or on the area where a prophesy is given, allowing them to record it.


That leads to this question: If the ministry can record the prophesy through some magic process, then why doesn't Voldemort do the same? I think the ministry's technique scrubs or gathers up all the bits that can be used to recreate/record the prophesy (except for witnesses memories, as demonstrated by Dumbledore using his pensive to show Harry what he remembered of the prophesy), leaving nothing behind.


Maybe one day there will be an official explanation, but until then, I'll have to go with the basic Fridge Logic.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more